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New online business gathers local, hand-crafted products for delivery

Author of the article:

Liane Faulder

Publishing date:

April 22, 2020 • 3 minute read

Courtney Konschuh of Grace's Traditional Foods packs groceries with Steven Souto of Steve and Dan's Fresh B.C. Fruit in a warehouse near Devon on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. The two are part of a new, online business delivering farmers market foods to homes in Edmonton and the surrounding area.Greg Southam/ Postmedia

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A local fruit producer and farmers market staple is starting a new, online food delivery service meant to mimic the market experience, but without the crowds and COVID-19 issues.

Steve and Dan’s Online Market is a new venture by the family-owned vendor, Steve and Dan’s Fresh B.C. Fruit. For the past 15 years, the third-generation farmers led by Steve Souto and his brother, Dan Souto, have served markets in Edmonton and across Alberta with apples, pears and peaches from their family farm in B.C. But with the arrival of COVID-19, farmers market business has dropped dramatically, leaving the Souto family with a lot of product and few ways to move it.

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While farmers markets are considered an essential service and allowed to remain open, government-imposed restrictions mean the number of consumers visiting the markets is drastically reduced, leading to hardship for market suppliers.

“Over the last five to six weeks, (our) numbers are down by 50 per cent,” said Steve Souto in a phone interview from his home in Spruce Grove. “So we got back at the drawing board about how to diversify.”

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Souto (whose parents run the fruit farm in Oliver, B.C.) reached out to popular local vendors that provide food staples such as eggs, milk, fish, meat and vegetables and asked if they were interested in being part of the new, online market.

Souta says his business was coincidentally set up for home delivery, with a small fleet of refrigerated trucks already at their disposal. With other food delivery services that specialize in fresh and local deluged with requests — SPUD’s website notes it is “operating at above capacity” and phone wait times are up to 60 minutes — Souto feels there is plenty of room in the market for another player.

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“We see that there is a demand,” said Souto. “We just need to figure out a way to get to that demand.”

Courtney Konschuh of Grace’s Traditional Foods packs groceries with Steven Souto of Steve and Dan’s Fresh B.C. Fruit in a warehouse near Devon on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 .Greg Southam/Postmedia

The new business offers a range of core products by more than a dozen local producers, delivered for $6 with a minimum $50 order. Some products are organic, such as the humanely raised meats from Sunworks Farm in Armena. Lacombe Fresh supplies produce grown by central Alberta’s Doef’s Greenhouses and Gull Valley Greenhouses. St. Albert’s Effing Seafoods and The Happy Camel (for dips and pita) are also on board, as well as local producers of jams, sweets, doughnuts, fresh bread, cheese and vegan offerings.

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“We’re bringing things on slowly,” said Souto. “We have 30 vendors on a wait list now. We don’t want to grow too fast.”

For Courtney Konschuh, 31, the new service is a life line. She’s been running her business, Grace’s Traditional Foods, for two years at the Old Strathcona Farmers Market and (in summer) the Callingwood Market. COVID-19 has severely disrupted her business, which sells hand-crafted sausage and pepperoni.

“I have some savings, but I’ve only been doing this business full-time for a year now and a lot of my savings went back into the business,” she said.

She decided to leave the Old Strathcona Farmers Market at the end of March because her sales were plummeting and she was worried about safety. But since then, customers have been in touch to find out how they can get her sausage.

“This is usually when the season picks up, and we don’t know where it’s going to go right now,” she says. “It’s been pretty grim and I haven’t known which direction to take, so this online market has been a saving grace for me.”

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